Thursday, May 2, 2013

Helping victims and their families

Late
on Monday night I travelled out to the RTE studios in Dublin to do a Prime Time
interview on the issue of victims of republican actions.The program makers say their interest was
sparked by my remarks in the Dáil in January following the killing
of Garda Adrian Donohoe.

On
that occasion I apologised to the family of Garda Jerry McCabe who was killed
by the IRA in June 1996. I also apologised to the families of other members of
the State forces who were killed by republicans in the course of the conflict. I
said: “I am very sorry for the pain and
loss inflicted on these families. No words of mine can remove that hurt and
dreadful deeds cannot be undone. However, I restate that the resolve of Sinn
Féin and the majority of Irish people is to ensure there will never, ever be a
recurrence of conflict.”

The war is over but the legacy of
partition, of decades of discrimination, injustice and of conflict, means that
there are many unresolved issues still facing society on this island. One of
the most important is how we address this issue of victims.

Over three and a half thousand
people were killed and many thousands more injured by combatant groups on all
sides. Families were bereaved and years later continue to struggle with the
pain and loss. Many also want truth. Who killed their loved one? Why?

This
is certainly true of the three families who were interviewed for Prime Time.
Garda Michael Clerkin was killed in October 1976; Garda Inspector Sam Donegan
was killed by a bomb on the Cavan/Fermanagh border in June 1972, and Chief
Prison Officer Brian Stack was shot 1983. He later died from his injuries. The film
report carried at the beginning of Prime Time was a powerful reminder of the trauma
that bereaved families live each day.

Over
many years I have met other families in this same situation. Their stories are
equally harrowing. Some were victims of the IRA. Others were killed as a result
of collusion between British state forces and loyalist death squads, or by the British
Army and RUC and the UDR. The grief and trauma suffered by all of these
families is the same. This experience has convinced me that there can be no
hierarchy of victims. All victims must be treated on the basis of equality.

In
these three cases the IRA never accepted responsibility. In each case there is
the possibility that other republican groups might have been responsible. It is
certainly true that some Gardaí were killed by the INLA, Saor Éire and other
smaller armed groups and it is possible that criminals might have been involved
in one of these deaths.

The
truth is that I don’t know. I have no personal information in respect of any of
these three deaths. If the IRA was responsible or if individual or other
republicans were involved then I have no hesitation in apologising to these
families also. And I said so and did so on Prime Time.

But
this doesn’t bring these families any closer to knowing with certainty who was
responsible or why. Like hundreds, perhaps thousands of other families, they
seek closure. Most do not want revenge. They don’t want anyone going to prison.
But they do want to know what happened.

How
do we achieve this for victims? There are two examples of how this can be done.
One is the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday. It provided for former
combatants from the IRA, the Official IRA and the British Army to give
testimony.

More
recently there is the Smithwick Tribunal which is examining the circumstances
surround the killing of two RUC officers in March 1989. In that instance I met at
his request with Justice Smithwick who asked if I could help. I explained to
him that in 2005 the IRA put its weapons beyond use and stood down its
structures. The IRA had left the stage. However, after some effort three former
IRA volunteers did give evidence to the Tribunal.

This
was a significant and unprecedented development. For the first time former
members of the IRA gave evidence to an inquiry into an IRA action. Clearly this
would not have been possible but for the Tribunal creating the context to allow
it.

I met
with Justice Smithwick because I sincerely believe that there is a
responsibility on republicans to assist bereaved families if and when they can,
though this may not be possible in all cases.

These
examples show that with political will it would be possible for the two governments
to help bring about a truth and
reconciliation process that can secure the participation of former combatants
and provide the answers that families seek.

Sinn
Féin has put forward a specific proposal for the governments to invite a
reputable independent international body to establish such a commission. It
would be independent of both states and the combatant groups, of the political
parties, and civil society and economic interests and it should have the remit
to inquire into the extent and pattern of past violations as well as their
causes and consequences.

Events and
actions in the Irish state have to be clearly part of this. After the Tan War
and the dreadful Civil War that followed there was no such process. There was
no attempt to locate the scores of remains of those killed and disappeared.
There was no effort to heal wounds. Victims were not looked after. On the
contrary the divisions of that period shaped the decades that have followed and
contributed to corruption that became a part of the political system.

This lesson must
be learned. A truth process must look at all actions, including those that
occurred in the Irish state. This means a truth process addressing the fact
that republicans were killed in this part of the island, including
Tom Smith, Hugh Hehir, John Francis Green and Councillor Eddie Fullerton.

It has to address the
experience of political prisoners in the jails; the role of the Heavy Gang and
the fact that innocents were imprisoned; collusion between elements of the
Irish establishment and the British system; and that that there were there were
bombs in Dublin and Monaghan and Dundalk involving collusion between British
state forces and loyalists.

There were other killings too
by armed groups like the Official IRA and INLA. These include Larry White of
Cork killed by the OIRA in June 1975 and Seamus Costello in October 1977.

Other
may have a different vision for a truth process. That’s fine. But whatever sort
of truth process is created it cannot be about putting people back into the
prisons. The Good Friday Agreement, which the two governments and the political
parties signed up to and which the people voted for in referendums, drew a line
in the sand. It opened up a democratic and peaceful way to achieve political
objectives and by so doing removed the reason for armed actions. It released all political prisoners. This was
a necessary part of making the peace process work. Without it there would have
been no Good Friday Agreement. Many of these former prisoners are champions of
the peace process.

Filling
the prisons again for actions that occurred, in some instances over 40 years
ago, would be counter-productive. It would play into the hands of those small
and unrepresentative groups who want to undermine the peace process and return
society on this island back to conflict. We cannot allow that to happen.

As
a republican leader I have a duty and responsibility to do my best to help victims
and their families. That is why I did the Prime Time interview.

Regrettably,
instead of an intelligent focussed examination of how victims can be helped by
republicans and others and scrutinising in a robust way the proposition we are
developing, the programme reverted to type.

Miriam
missed an opportunity to do a potentially ground breaking interview.

Sadly
it seems to me that the bereaved families who featured in the Prime Time
programme will have taken little succour from it.

Despite
this I will not be deterred. My generation of republican activists who lived
through and survived the war have a responsibility to try and bring the
families of victims of the war, irrespective of who was responsible, to a
better place.